


Fractures

by KivaEmber



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, End of the World, Gen, child raised by star alien and fire breathing demon dog, zombies (kinda)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-04 17:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaEmber/pseuds/KivaEmber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Long story short, the world ended, and Yamato is the sole human living in Tokyo with two million demons and an anguished star. Surprisingly, he’s quite happy with that scenario - up until he finds another human fighting for his life in a car park in Shibuya. Well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The manor below, once grand, was now nothing more than an empty, charred out husk. Within the broken walls, ghouls shuffled about with laboured groans and hisses, their wide eyes gleaming eerily in the as they clawed at the cracked floorboards with a strange sort of purpose. From a distance they looked like a swarm of rats, writhing as a black, living shadow throughout the ruined building.

They were searching for something, obviously, and Alcor had a suspicion as to what.

He observed this all from above, fingertips pressed against his bottom lip. A bright light – but small, very small, flickered down below, beneath the swarming shadow of the ghouls; a young soul brimming with potential. How anything could survive the calamity that befell humanity, Alcor didn’t know, but humans constantly amazed him with their tenacity and adaptability, and-

His thoughts were broken off when the ghouls screeched down below, followed by a brilliant burst of flames. Alcor’s eyes widened and he stared down at the inferno that had overtaken the swarm of ghouls. The flames’ heat reached him even this high, but he didn’t dare move from his position, staring as the fire spewed throughout the Hotsuin Manor, incinerating every creature within its walls.

Then, as swiftly as the flames had appeared they vanished, leaving ash and charred remains in its wake.

A still silence followed, nothing stirring from within the building. The bright one, the Shining One’s light, dulled considerably, and Alcor found himself floating downwards in response. The red moon above gave off poor visibility, and he found himself relying more on his supernatural senses, than his mundane ones, when he landed within the confines of the building to find the Shining One.

The air was charged with energy, wild and untamed and  _young_ , prickling over Alcor’s skin like static electricity as he floated throughout the burned out manor. It was so spread out, so seeped into the burned wood and cracked walls of the building, that Alcor couldn’t pinpoint its source. It was like drifting through a thick fog, unable to clearly see and feeling pressure close in around him.

Perhaps he should try calling out?

“Hello?” Alcor settled for, his soft voice sounding odd in the dead air. It didn’t echo, and sounded so abrupt. He waited patiently though, tilting his head a fraction. There was no reply, so he tried again; “Hello, Shining One?”

…no response.

Alcor sighed quietly to himself, rubbing at his mouth worriedly. This was troubling… where could they be…?

Then he heard it – a soft noise. Alcor turned towards it – a doorway, the door long since been smashed to splinters, confronted him, its gaping maw leading down into a dark hallway. The air was wobbling with heat still, but Alcor pushed on regardless, not even blinking at the prickling biting at his flesh.

Alcor heard the soft noise again, so he tried calling out once more, pitching his voice a bit louder; “Hello? Shining On-”

Something smashed through the hallway wall with a tremendous roar, and Alcor suddenly found himself crushed against the floor with a massive beast atop of him. Startled, Alcor reflexively moved his hand –only for his wrist to be crushed beneath the powerful jaws of his assailant. Something crunched and cracked, but Alcor didn’t feel pain, and merely blinked up at the wide, yellow eyes glaring down at him.

Ah. Cerberus. A high levelled demon.

“Hm, I see,” Alcor mused, letting his arm hang limp in the demon’s aggressive grip, “So that is how it was done… very impressive for one so young…”

The soft noise sounded out again, and Alcor twisted his neck to stare past Cerberus’s bulk. Behind the broken wall that Cerberus had leapt through, Alcor could see the small form of a young child peeking at them. Shining brightly, Alcor was amazed at the power roiling off the child – he was like a beacon, or a young star, burning with infinite power and light…

“Hello, Shining One,” Alcor greeted, smiling as well as he could in his awkward position, “Are you well?”

“Who are you?” The Shining One asked him, his voice quiet and strained.

“I am the Anguished One,” Alcor replied, not even blinking when Cerberus wrenched at his arm violently. Something in his elbow popped audibly, and black energy began to seep sluggishly from beneath the demon’s fangs. Alcor paid it little mind, his eyes intent on the young human.

“Anguished One?” The Shining One repeated. Alcor said nothing in response, and a stiff silence followed, broken only by the growls and huffs of Cerberus.

“You’re not human,” the child said, and he tucked his body behind the wall a little more. In the gloom, all Alcor could see was the dim light reflected in the child’s eyes. They practically glowed with power. “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” Alcor said truthfully, “I am an observer of humanity, and when I saw you-”

“What does that mean?” The Shining One’s tone became aggressive, sounding far too harsh for one so young, “Observer of humanity? Are you – responsible for what happened?”

Alcor was silent.

“Well?!” The child pushed himself from the wall, and Alcor could see that he truly was small. He was like a baby bird, fragile and tiny. How could so much power pour from one so breakable? “Are you?!”

“…the calamity was brought about due to the stagnation of mankind,” Alcor said neutrally, “Many factors and influences played a part in it.”

The Shining One seemed unhappy with this reply, and he stood there quivering for a moment. Then he took a deep breath, and stepped closer. The child was in full view now, standing over Alcor with a pale, drawn face, and dark, empty eyes. He looked even more fragile up close.

“You’re dodging the question,” The Shining One said, a dangerous edge to his tone. His light shone brighter. Alcor smiled in response.

“I’m sorry.”

The Shining One opened his mouth, his eyes narrowing in abrupt anger, when a loud, piercing shriek rent the air. The child spun around, and Cerberus released Alcor’s arm, already surging to its master’s defence as a ghoul, an impossible survivor of the earlier inferno, lunged out from the shadows, claws reaching for the Shining One.

It collided with Cerberus midway, and as the two demons battled ferociously on the floor, Alcor stood up. The Shining One had subconsciously backed away, and he was close enough for Alcor to touch – so he did. He very gently touched his fingers against the Shining One’s shoulder – only for the child to jump and smack at his hand in a startled movement.

“Don’t-!” the child half-cried, his eyes wild, and Alcor retreated a step away, lifting his gaze to see Cerberus crush the ghoul’s head in its powerful jaws. The crunching noise made the Shining One wince, and Alcor looked down at the child to see that he was worryingly pale, his entire body trembling violently.

“Are you well?”

“Don’t speak to me,” the Shining One snapped, his voice harsh with venom.

Alcor quietened, trying to stand as unthreateningly as possible. Cerberus returned to the Shining One’s side, the fur around its mouth stained a dark brown. An uneasy silence fell, and Alcor watched as the child’s trembling slowly died down – but only for his face to grow paler and paler with each passing second.

With a rough noise, the Shining One abruptly crouched down on the floor. His head was tucked between his knees, fingers clenched into his hair, and his body shaking. The child’s breathing came out in choppy bursts, and Alcor grew more concerned with each passing second.

“Shining One?” Alcor tried a gentle tone.

“I…I said don’t- not to speak to me!” the child half-choked, his words muffled strangely. “Leave me alone!”

Alcor dithered uncertainly, and after a moment of indecisiveness, moved closer instead. Cerberus watched him, but didn’t move to intercept. He crouched down in front of the child, and reached out to brush the very tips of his fingers against the Shining One’s. The child flinched.

“If you truly wish me gone, I will go,” Alcor said honestly, “However, your fate will be very short if I do so.” 

The Shining One yanked at his hair in reply, but said nothing. His shaking didn’t subside, and after waiting patiently, didn’t seem ready to speak again. Alcor sighed softly.

“…Alcor,” he finally said, “My name is Alcor.”

“…” The child’s breathing stuttered, “I thought you were Anguished One…”

“I am that as well,” Alcor said with a smile. He saw the Shining One raise his head a fraction, pale eyes looking up at him with an unreadable expression. “What is your name, Shining One?”

“…” the child stopped shaking, but didn’t move, “…Yamato.”

“Yamato. That is a good name,” Alcor settled his hands against his knees. “…I will help you, Yamato. Do you accept?”

The child, Yamato, made a strange noise (a laugh or a choke, Alcor wasn’t certain), and gave an ambiguous shake of his head. Alcor waited patiently.

“…why… are you offering it?” the child finally asked, his hands dropping from his head to dig his fingers into the charred earth beneath him. There was something broken in his eyes when he looked up at him, something vast and empty like the vacuum of space, and Alcor found himself reaching out without thought.

“I want to,” Alcor said simply, his palm turned upwards, held just before Yamato. A long silence followed, the child’s eyes staring at his hand as if it was something beyond his understanding. Those empty eyes shifted, and the vacuum was gone, replaced with something more human and cold, something that he saw in every single human that struggled against their despairing lives – that he saw in animals wounded and cornered, but refusing to fall without a struggle. 

It was beautiful. Charming, really. Yamato shone so bright, his light pale and cold, like the glimmer of a star before its death. At that moment, the child encompassed everything Alcor admired about humanity – about its potential. Fragile and small, he may be, but there was power and strength, a will that refused to bent, even if it strained under the weight of his upturned purpose. Why else would a powerful demon such as Cerberus heed Yamato’s call? Not even demons could resist the near hypnotic light that was…

A small hand took his own, smearing his pale skin in black ash. Yamato’s expression was grim, looking too old on such a young face, but very  _alive_. Alcor could not suppress the feeling that rose up inside of him, and he curled his fingers around Yamato’s, smiling.

“If you try to trick me,” the Shining One said, his blue eyes like flints of ice, “I’ll destroy you.”

That was fine, Alcor thought almost wryly. That would be… the natural course of things, in the end… Absolutely necessary, in fact. So he smiled wider, and settled his other hand atop of Yamato’s – it was so cold, despite the fire and the heat warping the air. So so cold.

“…thank you, Shining One. I understand.” 

 

* * *

 

**Six Years Later – 2008, June 8 th**

**Tokyo**

**Human Population: 1  
Demon Population: 2’000’000**

* * *

 

The sky was full of stars.

It was almost bewildering, really, since the sky was normally dominated by a malevolent red moon, but every once in a while the moon would sink low in the horizon and the sky would be filled with countless stars, bright and twinkling like diamonds. They gave off less light than the moon, so it was a bit more dangerous in starlight, but the air was less… sinister.

Yamato stared up at those stars, leaning on the handlebars of his bike. He was in no particular rush – and he sort of wanted to delay his return home. He was in the middle of a curious investigation, mostly to entertain himself, as activity in JP’s had been getting rather stale (after several years of constant book reading… even he could get bored of that). There were rumours that demons had set up a little community within the old Shibuya district, and Yamato wanted to check it out.

That was it, really.

Cerberus heaved an impatient sounding huff at his side, and Yamato straightened up, placing one foot on the pedal. Ah, yes, he had spent too long staring up at the sky, and not enough activity. He was relatively safe where he was – he was at a local shrine, and its holy grounds repelled most demons and Corrupted – there were the exceptions, of course, but that was why Cerberus was here.

Kicking off the ground, Yamato’s bike started forwards, and he angled his body back a fraction as he started down the stone steps of the shrine – only a mere four – and onto the cracked pavement. The street was abandoned and quiet, and Yamato could hear the crunch of broken glass underneath the tyres of his bicycle.

Cerberus kept a steady pace beside him, practically trotting, and Yamato kept a close eye on his surroundings. These empty buildings could be the home to something nasty, and too many times in his life he had  _things_  lunging out at him from windows and doorways. Last time he very nearly lost his head. He did not want a repeat of that.

It took almost forty minutes of careful cycling, but Yamato eventually ended up in the Shibuya district. He remembered that it was supposed to be a shopping district, and in the old days it would be full of bright colours, advertisements and young adults and students all shopping about. Nowadays it was a little bit different – it was grimy and seedy, and although there were bright colours still, they tended to lean towards what Yamato read about a ‘Red Light District’. Garish and discomforting.

There was no human presence either – demons had claimed the storefronts, peddling this or that ware or service, and the amount of demons on the street… it was more than last time. Last time Yamato had been here, there had only been a handful of demons and about two shops that sold generic things such as Magnetite, healing items and jewels; but in the recent weeks, it had exploded into an almost civilised hub. It was… admittedly impressive.

“It’s almost as if they’re imitating humans,” Yamato muttered to Cerberus. His companion growled in agreement, and Yamato swung off his bike. They were standing at the entrance to the bustling street, and when he glanced up, the bright lights had blocked out the stars entirely. Hmph… he found his mood dipping a bit when he noticed this, but he pushed it aside as he slowly walked into the street, pushing his bike along with Cerberus at his side.

Demons from varying classes populated the shopping street – Beast, Megami, Avian, Fairy, the list was endless, each and every one wrapped up in their own personal business. The more Yamato observed them all, the more they seemed like they were imitating humans – he even saw a bunch of demons come spilling out of what appeared to be some sort of bar, raucous and filled with drunken excitement. It was almost surreal.

“I wonder what prompted this,” Yamato mused, stopping beside a ‘Rag’s Jewellers’ shop. The front was a large window that held a diamond sign – and underneath were many jewels laid out for viewing pleasure. It probably seemed foolish to lay them out like that, but Yamato could feel the prickle of protective charms and curses emitting from the store. A burglar would have to be very stupid to try and rob from a demon’s store.   

Cerberus sat down beside him, swinging his head from side to side as he watched the passing demons. His yellow eyes were intent, but his posture was relaxed. Yamato drummed his fingers on the handlebar of his bike.

“Awww,” a feminine voice suddenly cooed out, “Aren’t you such a cute human~”

Cerberus immediately let out a warning growl, and Yamato turned to see that there was a – ah, a Succubus demon leaning out of the Rag’s Jewellers shop, her painted lips curved upwards into a little smile – but he could see the hint of fangs and the crimson gleam to her eyes. He just stared at her coldly.

“Do not call me cute, demon,” he said shortly.

“Ohohoho! Feisty too~” she slid out of the doorway entirely, her hips giving an exaggerated swagger that let her pointed tail whip through the air. Yamato tightened his grip on his bike, his eyes narrowing a fraction – although he felt no real tension. Cerberus was with him, and Yamato had lived long enough in this demonic city to know how to handle the creatures. There was no hostility detected in the demon’s posture, and her expression was mostly curious instead of hungry. Besides, he was much too young for a Succubus to ‘enjoy’.

“Where did you come from, hmm?” she pondered aloud, pressing a clawed finger against her bottom lip, “It’s so rare to meet a human out here, especially a baby one. Where’s your sire, little boy?”

Yamato frowned, “I am not that young. Stop bothering me.”

The Succubus just smiled, seemingly enjoying Yamato’s growing irritation. With a hum she leaned her upper body forwards, hands on her thighs, her arms pushing against the sides of her breasts in a way that would entice an adult male – to Yamato it just looked uncomfortable, and his frown deepened in response.

“It looks like the young boy thinks he’s an adult… but you only become an adult when you get to indulge in the carnal side of life,” the Succubus purred, and Yamato could hear the lilt of magic in her honeyed words. Cerberus let out a snort next to him. “Do you think you’re ready for that sort of thing, cutie? I’d be willing to teach a few tricks, just for you~”

Yamato easily shrugged off the fuzziness to his vision in response to the Succubus’s magic, giving a quick blink before looking away from her. “I will have to decline. If you excuse me.”

Without waiting for the Succubus to respond, he quickly walked away, pushing his bike with him as Cerberus followed after him. He heard the Succubus laugh at his swift retreat, the noise full of amused mirth. As he thought, the creature had been teasing him – ugh, as if he would be interested in such disgusting things. Filthy demon.

Cerberus was letting out a few suspicious noises, and Yamato scowled when he realised that the beast was sniggering under his breath. He stopped his rapid powerwalking and gave Cerberus a thoroughly unimpressed look, feeling the tingle of magic collect on his fingertips.

“Cerberus,” he said coolly, and his demon immediately quietened, feigning interest in a nearby storefront. It was full of strange looking items, probably a generic junk shop for supernatural items.

“Hmm…” Yamato turned his head this way and that. The deeper they went, the more active this place seemed to be. He could even see something resembling a hotel not too far away. Seriously? He wasn’t even aware that demons required hotels to sleep in.

But the shopping district seemed entirely benign, at least. In fact, this was a very useful development. JP’s Headquarters’ supplies were running low as of late, and Yamato had pondered over how to replenish them since, well, humanity had long since fallen, but the demonic equivalent would serve just as well, and Yamato had collected a lot of Macca over the years from lack of anything to spend it on.

So, perhaps, he should start stocking up now…?

 

* * *

 

“I’m home.”

The dark, empty lobby of JP’s Tokyo Headquarters echoed his words back to him. Yamato wasn’t put off, and stepped out of the elevator to prop his bike up against the wall next to it. Cerberus followed him, the packs tied to his back carrying all the supplies Yamato had bought that evening. He managed to make a dent in his near mountain of Macca – it was… relieving, in a strange way, to spend so much. Yamato couldn’t explain it.

He pried open the metal box near the elevator and flipped the switches inside. With a low hum, the lobby’s lights flickered on, revealing the golden catwalks and massive clocks reaching high up to the ceiling. Yamato blinked his eyes a few times to adjust to the sudden brightness, and closed the lid to the metal box.

“Let’s unload the supplies to the storeroom.”

It didn’t take long. About half an hour later, Yamato left the storeroom with Cerberus in tow, his eyelids feeling heavy with drowsiness. He didn’t know how  _shopping_  of all things exhausted him so much, but, well, it did. He had never had to socialise so much in his life before, and demons were even more finicky than humans were – he… thought, anyway. He wasn’t quite certain. He hadn’t spoken to a human for over five years, so his memory wasn’t quite clear.

He prepared for bed swiftly, and by the time he crawled into it – the sheets fresh smelling and crisp –he was already half-sleep. Cerberus was curled up at his bedside, and the dark ceiling loomed over Yamato, the background noise of humming almost lulling him into full sleep. He liked sleeping in JP’s because of that – the humming. It sounded alive, and if he was sleepy enough, it almost sounded like the murmuring of voices.

Demons weren’t the same as humans, no matter how much they imitated them in certain things, or how similar they were in their mannerisms and sins. Demons were shallow, and humans were – they were… Yamato couldn’t remember. When he thought ‘human’, he got a vague, blurry sort of memory of a peculiar creature that was contradictory and frustrating. Humans frustrated Yamato. That was the only memory he clearly had of them.

The dark ceiling blurred out of view, Yamato’s eyes slipping shut as his breathing began to slow. Memory… he couldn’t recall much, before his time here. He remembered smoke and fire and Cerberus manifesting into being when Yamato had called out with all of his might for someone, or something, to protect him. Although, even those events were indistinct and muddled, mostly from trauma, and all he recalled from those hazy events was that that was where he had met Alcor for the first time. Everything before that… it may as well be a black hole. Try as he might, he could not remember anything before everything ended, of his ‘original’ life.

It probably wasn’t important, anyway. He remembered the necessary things – JP’s and demon summoning. Those were the only things he required.

His thoughts were tranquil then, and after a long, peaceful moment, he drifted…

 

* * *

 

“…ing one…Shining One.”

“Mn…”

Yamato stirred slightly, and he felt a gentle touch to his shoulder. That prompted him into near full awareness, and he half-sat up, blinking rapidly as he tried to focus on the figure leaning over him. Half closed, pale eyes met his own, and he recognised him instantly as Alcor – he was the only creature alive with those sort of eyelashes.

“Alcor?” Yamato murmured, his voice rough with sleep.

“Shining One,” Alcor returned, his voice gentle, “My apologies for waking you. However, you had been sleeping for over ten hours, so I felt the need to check on your status.”

“Ten hours…?”

“That’s right. Such slumber is unusual for you.”

It was. Yamato rubbed at his eyes, making a dissatisfied noise as the cobwebs of sleep refused to leave him. That was probably why he felt so groggy… oversleeping tended to make him feel worse than lack of it.

“…I went shopping,” Yamato finally muttered, lowering his hands. “It was exhausting, strangely.”

“At Shibuya,” It was more of a statement than a question. Alcor didn’t sound disapproving, though, and Yamato saw the man press his fingers against his mouth, as if in thought.

“Stop stalking me,” Yamato said, but there was no real heat in his words. He could say it as much as he wished, Alcor would continue to follow his footsteps to wherever he went – out of protectiveness, curiosity, or possibly something more sinister, Yamato didn’t know, or care. He just found it very annoying and wanted it to stop before he reached his teenage years.

A moment of silence passed between them, and Yamato found the fog of sleep beginning to disperse. He still felt somewhat lethargic though, so he didn’t get out of bed – instead he lied back down, settling on the comfortable mattress and pulling the duvet up a little. The room was cold, he just realised, and the humming of JP’s had stopped. Had Alcor turned off the power at some point?

“It’s cold now,” he muttered into the duvet.

“My apologies,” Alcor replied, “But the generator requires rest if you wish for it to last beyond its expected years.”

“Mn…” That was… annoyingly true. The generator was already beginning to reach the end of its days, and Yamato wondered what he would do once it finally did break. Perhaps the demon’s shopping district would have some sort of magical equivalent – that would be more reliable. Unless he had to make regular sacrifices to it or something equally irritating…

“Are you hungry?” Alcor asked abruptly, and Yamato saw the man move away from the edge of his bed to gesture to the side. Yamato tracked the movement, and saw a silver trolley topped with plates of food. To this day, Yamato did not know how Alcor managed to cook human cuisine when he was almost one hundred per cent certain that the majority of the products he used no longer existed (in date) within Tokyo. He had long since abandoned solving the mystery, though. So long as it tasted good, he wouldn’t question the only steady supply of food he had.

“Somewhat,” Yamato replied, sitting up again and neatly folding the duvet over in his lap. He was absolutely starving – he even saw Cerberus lifting his head at the mention of food, his long ears twitching in curiosity. “What have you made today?”

Alcor just smiled enigmatically and gestured with his hand – the plate lifted up from the trolley and floated over to Yamato. He carefully took the plate in mid-air, making sure to spill a single crumb, and settled it on his lap. It looked like… a full English breakfast. Alcor hadn’t made that in a long while.

(Seriously, where was he getting all the fresh eggs and meat to make this sort of meal…?)

A fork tapped him on top of his head, and without looking, Yamato reached up and plucked the cutlery out of the air. He heard the creak of springs when Alcor sat down on the edge of the bed, watching him as he telekinetically lowered another plate onto the floor before Cerberus. Yamato was too used to Alcor just staring at him so blatantly though, so he just ignored him as he dug into his meal.

Alcor never ate. Yamato doubted he needed to. He had long since concluded that Alcor was neither human nor demon, and instead was some sort of unique and bizarre creature. There was no questioning his strength, though. Yamato had witnessed Alcor brushing aside powerful demons like they were specks of dust on his sleeve, and the thought that he had such a strong companion in this sort of world was a comforting one indeed.

Yamato frowned at his plate. The only question that remained, however, was why Alcor happily submitted himself to a life of servitude to him when his power far exceeded his own. ‘The Shining One’, Alcor called him, but Yamato still didn’t know what that title meant or entailed. Perhaps the creature was just lonely or insane – really any of those theories would stick.  

“Alcor,” Yamato muttered, lowering his cutlery. His meal was mostly finished, anyway. “Has all of mankind gone extinct?”

There was a bit of a pause then, but Yamato kept his gaze lowered to his plate. He had never really asked that before. When he had first arrived here with Alcor, he had accepted that something terrible had happened to the world, and when he had witnessed it with his own eyes, he understood the magnitude of it. But he never asked about whether humanity had been brought to extinction. He always thought there would be pockets of them about – they were like cockroaches, demons had grumbled. It was impossible to think of there being absolutely none.

But as months and years grinded on, with even demons commentating that Yamato was the first human they had seen for a while… it made him wonder.

“…You are still here, are you not?” Alcor finally said, his voice subdued.

“You know what I meant,” Yamato looked up then, pinning Alcor down with a sharp look. “With the exception of myself, are there no other humans alive?”

Alcor’s face was impassive, and Yamato couldn’t guess anything from the complicated stare he was giving him. The man didn’t even say anything, the only response being a slight flicker of his eyes, his slim fingers pressing against his mouth. “…”

“Never mind,” Yamato muttered disgustedly. He set aside the plate on the bed, and wriggled off of it. Cerberus immediately pushed himself to his feet, but Yamato was already striding off, yanking his coat off of the chair near the door. “I am going for a walk.”

He didn’t wait for a reply. With a violent wrench of the door, he yanked it open hard enough that it bounced off the wall, and the loud cracking noise it made chased after him as he stormed down the hallway.

 

* * *

 

The stars were gone.

The red moon had reclaimed its place in the centre of the sky, its red light casting malevolent crimson shadows on the looming buildings. The streets were no longer silent as well – when the moon was like this, there were… noises. Skittering and scratching, the low hiss and growls of creatures lurking in the corners, even the glimpse of eyes – not demons. They definitely weren’t demons.

Yamato wasn’t intimidated by such a dangerous air. Cerberus was almost running at his side while Yamato furiously pedalled on his bike, muttering irritably under his breath as he nimbly rode around the various roadblocks in his path – upturned cars, chunks of debris, fallen lampposts…

“Does he think I would be unable to handle the answer?” he asked no one in particular, knowing Cerberus could not reply, “I am not a child. I would simply prefer to  _know_ , so I am not…”

So he wasn’t…well, he certainly wasn’t waiting for a human to come strolling along. Yamato wasn’t yearning for human contact – Alcor was quite enough, and demons gave him more than enough socialising for a healthy development. He was just – this was his species after all, so it was understandable that he was curious about their fate. That was all. Alcor wouldn’t even give him an answer, even an ‘I do not know’. He would accept that.

He reached a bridge, and he slowly pulled to a stop, breathing hard from his cycling. He looked out over the dried up canal, his fingers tight around the handlebars – before they slowly eased when he let out a calming breath.

…

His fury suddenly left him, and he just felt drained instead. Slipping off of his bike, he propped it against the bridge’s railing, and leaned over, staring down at the empty blackness beneath him. He felt Cerberus settle beside him, the demon resting its chin on the chipped railing, its yellow eyes gazing at him curiously. Yamato evaded the stare, and pushed himself up, the front of his boots slipping against the metal until he got his footing.

Yamato felt gravity pull at him when he stood on the railing, one hand grasping the bent pole of the lamppost beside him. The fall was quite steep – he would probably be more than bruised if he fell, but he wasn’t concerned. He looked out past the canal, able to see the toppled, empty buildings that lined it, the red sky, the horrible moon, and the broken skyline.

This was Tokyo. No human except himself lived here. The only other residents were demons and Corrupted – those hideous, mindless creatures that just devoured whatever moved, human or demon. Humans were powerless against them, whereas demons could at least defend themselves with magic and natural resilience. So…

Humans  _couldn’t_  live here.

Humans  _wouldn’t_  live here.

Yamato felt a strange sort of peace settle in him at this affirming thought. It was correct, after all. There was no way an average human could survive in such a toxic place. The only reason why Yamato could was because he had Cerberus, was because he had Alcor’s pity, was because he knew how to use magic. If he had none of those things, he wouldn’t survive out here at all. If he left JP’s without Cerberus, he wouldn’t be safe. If Alcor didn’t feed him, or house him for those first few years when finding him, he would have died from starvation or exposure. If Alcor didn’t give him the medium to use spells, then, he wouldn’t be able to defend himself.

…it was a bitter sort of peace. Yamato found himself smiling wryly. Really, it wasn’t surviving, what he was doing. He was latching onto stronger creatures for his own continued existence. Wasn’t that what parasites did?

“Humanity is extinct,” he told himself, “Humanity is extinct, and it will be utterly so once I am dead.”

Tokyo didn’t reply to him. The bridge was completely silent, not even the noises of the creatures reaching them here, and the moon stared down coldly at him. The city probably didn’t even care – the world continued to turn, however awfully, without humans.

Yamato let go of the pole next to him, and he felt himself rock on the railing without the support. He took a step backwards, and nimbly jumped back onto the bridge. Right… he had his little moment. He should probably get back to JP’s before Alcor-

A sudden, piercing scream rent the air.

Cerberus was immediately on alert, and Yamato almost leapt out of his skin in surprise. The noise echoed violently around them, before naturally fading, and Yamato just stared around him, trying to pinpoint where it came from. That – was that a Corrupt? A demon? It sounded like neither of those things. Corrupt were more, shrill and inhuman, and a demon – he never heard a demon scream like that…

Without warning, Cerberus turned away and started down the bridge, its nose tilted up towards the sky. Yamato heard his companion taking in deep breaths through its nose, and then abruptly still, Cerberus’s head lowering with an interested sounding growl.

“Cerberus?” Yamato questioned.

Cerberus flicked its tail, and looked over its shoulder. It didn’t move back towards Yamato, and, instead, jerked its head in the direction it was facing. Hm, it wanted Yamato to follow…

“…”

Well, he  _was_  curious…

Yamato took his bike and jumped on it – just as Cerberus broke into a swift trot. Kicking off quickly, Yamato followed after his demon, frowning as they made their way off the bridge and into the crowded streets of the other side. Narrow streets made him nervous, and he found that the debris was a bit more difficult to avoid on his bike here – but Cerberus was adamant on pushing forwards, and Yamato had no choice but to follow or be left behind.

Yamato was quickly becoming aware of  _sounds_  the further down the street they went. Sounds of shouting, screaming, roaring – demons? Was there a fight going on? Yamato could feel a sort of anxiety start to build up in him, not that he was frightened to leap into a fight, but, he knew better than to jump into a random one without knowing the strength of either side-

Cerberus abruptly pivoted around a corner, just as the commotion began to reach a crescendo, and Yamato followed, the tyres of his bike squealing when they skidded over the tarmac and – a large car park outside of an empty shopping centre came into view – a bright flash of a  _Maziodyne_  very nearly blinded Yamato, and he abruptly halted, feeling his upper body lurch forwards from the sudden application of brakes, trying to blink the spots from his vision.

The ozone in the air stank, and when Yamato’s vision cleared – he felt like something sucker punched him in the stomach.

Firstly, there were Corrupted. They were ghoul like creatures that were humanoid, with large, fanged mouths, and elongated limbs – they always looked fragile and brittle, like they could snap easily, but the sheer strength in their bodies was frightening. Yamato had seen one rip a car in half with just its bare hands before. There was a large group before him, although most were already slain on the ground, their bodies twisted and smoking from the powerful electrical attack.

And centred in the middle of the car park, was Byakko – a high levelled demon with an affinity for lightning. Its fur was almost glowing from the electricity crackling over it, its blue eyes wild and furious as it bellowed out a challenge to the remaining Corrupted. There were streaks of red matted in its fur, and from how it was favouring its right hind leg – it was already heavily injured.

That wasn’t what stunned Yamato. No. No it – what stunned him was what was  _behind_ Byakko. That behind the demon was a figure, standing just behind Byakko, wearing white and dark haired and shaking and frightened but-

Human.

That was a human.

Yamato didn’t know how to react. He was sitting on the corner, staring dumbly at the scene in front of him – he hadn’t yet been spotted by either party, and Cerberus was standing before him, staring levelly at him as if waiting for a command. Yamato shifted his gaze to his companion, as if asking what he should do. He never entered a fight with Corrupted unless it was to defend himself. They were like rats – they attacked in swarms, and when one fell, five more would take its place in a never ending rush. The only way to fight them was to retreat.

This… human looked like they hadn’t yet learned this lesson. How were – they. It felt like there were a hundred voices screaming in Yamato’s head – logic and rationality stated to quickly retreat before he was spotted by the Corrupted. Every second, the swarm was getting bigger, the bodies of the fallen trampled underfoot – the Byakko was powerful, but not invulnerable. It would only be a matter of time before it was overcome and its master killed. Yamato would be a fool to get involved in that mess.

But. A totally irrational voice, loud enough to be deafening was saying ‘that is a human that is a human how is that a human there aren’t any left there aren’t any’ and Yamato just – just because they were human did not mean he was obligated to help them. He certainly wouldn’t help a demon if they were caught in this same situation. It was ridiculous. Same species did not mean…

Byakko unleashed yet another Maziodyne, and Yamato squinted his eyes shut, the booming roar of it slamming into the ground making his ears ring. The ozone was almost suffocating, and he was clutching so tightly at his bike’s handlebars that his fingers started to hurt. Leave.  _Leave_. Retreat. It did not concern you, and it doesn’t matter! It’s doesn’t matter!

 _It doesn’t matter_!

“Tch!”

Yamato kicked off the ground, and Cerberus surged after him, the demon’s strides long and powerful. The howls of the Corrupt were almost deafening at his point, growing louder in volume the closer Yamato got, but right now he wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Everything was a mad spiral inside his mind, but already – already –

With a roar, Cerberus spewed forth flame, and the world was alight.

 

* * *

 

Death was something Hibiki was very intimate with.

In the type of world they lived in, when the next day wasn’t certain at all, Hibiki was used to people appearing and disappearing like he was caught in a perpetual revolving door. Sometimes they left with other people, something they left of their own will, and sometimes they were violently dragged out of that revolving door, screaming and begging for help, and no matter how quickly Hibiki tried to move, he was always too slow, and Death would take them away.

That was the type of world they lived in: a sort of roulette, really. Around and around they spun, and when the ball landed on you, oh, guess who’s gonna be dragged out next!

Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto… they were all the same. Maybe there would be one city that is safe, people would say. Over and over again they would send brave ‘volunteers’ to see if any one of their cities were free, and over and over again those volunteers would return in body bags or not at all. They were always forgotten by the next month, when people would ask to send more volunteers again. Hibiki knew why – the last stronghold of humanity was getting a bit cramped, and food short – it was… sadly a necessary thing to do.

And Hibiki had been the one to be a lucky ‘volunteer’ for Tokyo. They really were getting desperate.

Tokyo had been complete Ground Zero. It was where everything had started, and now they were even sending people there. Most people died before they even entered the city proper, the population of monsters was so thick. Demons weren’t an issue – thanks to some sort of cult (Hibiki was hazy on the details), they managed to develop some kind of device that allowed the subjugation of demons. It was unreliable at best, and didn’t work at worst, but it was… something.

Hibiki went with four people – the first one died before they entered the city, the second and third one died a few streets away, and the fourth died just about ten minutes ago, when they had been set upon by a  _mob_  of monsters. They came scrambling out of nowhere, and her demon summoning terminal borked – Death Error Sign, people called it. She was cut down in seconds, and Hibiki – thank God his worked and-

All he could do was stand here, in the middle of some sort of car park, with Byakko fighting off hordes of monsters. He was delaying the inevitable, really, but Hibiki refused to do what so many had done before and give up. Hibiki may be intimate with death, but he also knew that it could be overcome if you just – kept pushing as hard as you could. It was certain only when you lost hope!

“I refuse…” he muttered to himself, staring at the horror before him. Byakko was his sole barrier, and past the demon, he could see the teeming hordes of monsters – Maziodyne after Maziodyne was felling them left, right and centre, but more and more were taking their place. He hadn’t witnessed anything like this before – where were they coming from? How were there so many? Why wasn’t there an end to them? There had to be one – just, one little break, for him to escape, to break free-!

Byakko let out a pained scream when one of the monsters managed to slip past its guard and clamber onto its back, its fanged jaws sinking into its shoulder. He saw his demon furiously thrash, managing to throw it off – but not without taking a massive chunk out of its flesh in the process. Blood spewing from its wound, Byakko let out another barrage of lightning – but it was flagging fast. Hibiki would see its limbs quiver, and its head bow, snorts of short gasps escaping it.

Hibiki clutched at his terminal – a large, bulky contraption strapped to his wrist, fingers digging into the flimsy plastic, and took a few shaky steps forwards. Byakko gazed over its shoulder at him, and Hibiki felt something complicated rise up in him, unable to speak as, past the demon, he saw another wave of monsters and-

A roar cut through the air, and the next second the entire world was on fire. Hibiki blinked rapidly at the liquid surge of golden flames roil over the monsters. Their tinny screams made Hibiki grit his teeth, and the stink of burning flesh was almost sickening. But who-

A Cerberus leapt before Byakko, smoke still trailing out of its maw, and its yellow eyes were bright. Hibiki could only stare at it dumbly. A Cerberus? Why was there – one helping them? Defending them? Indeed, it was crouched protectively before Hibiki’s injured Byakko, back arched, fangs bared, and tail raised high, a low, constant thrum of a growl rumbling in its chest. That was not the behaviour of a wild demon to defend some random human-

“You!”

The human voice made Hibiki jolt, and his head snapped to the side to see – first thing he saw was bright blue. A bright blue bicycle. It skidded to a halt in front of him, and perched on it, dressed in a simple black winter coat and jeans was… a kid? A genuine kid. There was a kid on a bright blue bike in the middle of this hellish city and-

Hibiki felt the hysterical urge to laugh building in him.  _What was this_?

“Don’t stare like an idiot,” the kid snapped at him, his voice surprisingly deep and coldly commanding. It enough to make Hibiki flinch – the kid’s eyes were bright, in the gloom they almost looked like they were glowing. “We are going to retreat, so prepare to move.”

Retreat?

“What?” Hibiki croaked.

“Are you deaf?” the kid half-snarled, and his canines were sharp, glints of fangs when he made a feral looking expression – almost like the Cerberus – wait, was, that demon his? “Use your legs to run away, unless you wish to be devoured?”

Hibiki just stared at the kid in utter amazement. It was like nothing was connecting at that point in time – when a howl broke him out of his daze, and he quickly looked to see Cerberus swatting aside a monster like it was a fly, sending it smashing into the ground with a sickening crack. The sheer amount of power that demon had was… incredible.

It was like something snapped then – clarity exploded within him, and he abruptly smashed at his terminal, blindly, recalling his heavily wounded Byakko. Without really thinking, he pivoted on his heel and started to run – towards the kid, and the kid, with obvious experience, spun the bike around and started to pedal away swiftly. Hibiki could hear Cerberus fending off the monsters behind them.

Hibiki didn’t know for how long he ran for. He just ran and ran until his lungs began to burn and his stomach clench, keeping that kid on the bike in his vision as much as possible. That kid – he was – his hair was pure white, and he looked so pale, and riding that bike – a hysterical thought of Death actually following him around entered his mind, but his thoughts were so jumbled and panicked that he knew better than to think on that seriously. Human or not, this kid had just helped him-

Abruptly, the kid on the bike stopped on some sort of bridge, the tyres squealing loudly. Hibiki staggered to a halt, breathing hard and gripping onto the nearby railing to keep himself upright. Everything was quiet now. There was no screaming, no fighting, no roaring – it was just him and the kid, with no Cerberus in view.

“…” The kid was staring at him, and Hibiki was definitely  _not_  imagining it, there was a subtle glow to his eyes. Hibiki stared back at him – the kid looked to be either in his very early teens, or just before it, with a lean looking body and an air of confidence. There was no fear or anxiety in the child’s expression when he stared at him, only… an empty sort of curiosity. Or something. Hibiki couldn’t read the kid’s face at all. It was just like marble.

“…thanks,” Hibiki said after an awkward pause. The kid’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t thank me,” the kid said, and he looked away over the bridge’s railing. He was still sitting on the bike, gripping the handlebars tightly. His blank face broke into a complicated expression, it almost looked pained, truthfully. Then the kid let out a heavy exhale. “You are a human, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Hibiki replied, feeling a bit bemused. “I’m guessing you are… too?”

The kid didn’t reply. Instead he rocked back and forth on the bike, his eyebrows furrowing even further as he peered past Hibiki. Another heavy exhale.

“Are there… more?”

More? For a moment, Hibiki didn’t know what he meant – before it clicked. “Uh, more humans? Yeah… there’re loads. Too many, really…”

“I see.”

The rocking motion stopped, and the kid looked almost thunderous. Hibiki was – thoroughly bewildered the more he spoke to this child – was he really human? Hibiki was beginning to have doubts. How could a human – a child no less – survive in this sort of place? How was that Cerberus in his service? There was no summoning terminal on the kid – no sort of contraption in the slightest – and judging by how he just rolled into that fight without a hint of terror, he was probably used to cycling past monsters ripping into whatever entered their line of sight.

“You have…” the child began, before stopping with a sigh. The dark expression on his face faltered, “I had long since come to the conclusion that humanity, sans myself of course, had become extinct. The fact that you have proven this to be entirely untrue is… aggravating.”

“I’m sorry?” Hibiki offered, his confusion merely growing. He would have thought any ordinary human would be happy to learn that they weren’t alone in the world. The child instead looked annoyed, and…admittedly, equally confused as Hibiki felt.

“I merely went through some emotional turbulence that was entirely unnecessary because of your arrival,” the child muttered under his breath. Before Hibiki could question the kid further on what that meant, pale blue eyes pinned him down with a stare that felt like it stripped him to the bone. “You. Tell me your name.”

“…Hibiki Kuze,” Hibiki said after a pause, unsure on how to take the kid’s rude way of speaking. It was very direct, and there was no hint of politeness in his tone at all. Then again, this wasn’t exactly an environment that fostered kind socialising. If he was asking if humans lived outside of this city, then – he probably hadn’t spoken to one in who knows how long.

“I see.” The kid then sat on his bike and said nothing further, staring intently at Hibiki with those eerie eyes.

The silence stretched to awkward lengths, and Hibiki finally broke it with a clearing of his throat. “Uh, um. What’s… your name?”

There was a slow blink, “Yamato.”

Yamato. Hibiki nodded slowly, and then fidgeted with the terminal on his wrist. He saw Yamato’s gaze shift from his face to the terminal, a gleam of interest entering his blank expression. Hibiki felt something nervous bubble in his stomach – he was still… uncertain about this ‘kid’. The way he acted and spoke… it didn’t resemble a child’s way at all, even one who grew up in this sort of environment.

The noise of claws on stone distracted him, and Hibiki hurriedly turned around to see – Cerberus. The beast slowly padded down the bridge, splatters of brown smeared over its maw and paws – but there was no injury whatsoever on it. It looked perfectly okay, and Hibiki saw those yellow eyes size him up as the demon approached… and then slipped past him entirely, towards the kid.

Yamato reached out, rubbing Cerberus on the muzzle for a brief moment. The beast purred quietly, looking pleased at this little gesture of affection, and then curled around the child’s bike, staring at Hibiki once again. There was no terminal keeping it there – and they had run far from the car park, hadn’t they? Wouldn’t the demon have gotten out of range if there was one? Last Hibiki remembered, there was a range of two hundred metres before the demon was automatically recalled.

Mysteries upon mysteries…just what was going on?

“You look perplexed,” the child said suddenly, “I am too. This was not something I had ever expected.”

This kid was too weird, too. It was almost like some creature trying to play human with how Yamato was speaking – and why was he staring at him so intently like that? It was putting Hibiki on edge!

“I’m… uncertain how you’ve… lived here for so long,” Hibiki said slowly, “Without, y’know… dying.”

Yamato stared blankly at him – and then the child suddenly smiled. It was a cold tilt to his lips, and his eyes glittered with almost malicious amusement. “Because I am not weak like you are. That display you had was almost pathetic. You did not participate in the battle at all, even when your demon was struggling. It’s alright though. That was expected. I realise that humans cannot live in this place. Only I can.”

Hibiki didn’t know if it was arrogance, or well-earned confidence bolstering the kid’s tone. ‘Participate in the battle’? What, did that mean Yamato fought demons as well? But, he was a kid, and, he looked so breakable. Pale and wiry, he looked like one smack into a wall would shatter him into pieces.

“I see,” Hibiki muttered quietly, worrying his bottom lip. “So… I guess I’m going to either be kicked out of Tokyo or you’re going to leave me here, if only you can live here.”

Yamato was quiet, his expression cooling into one of old indifference. “Hm. I considered that. Just because you’re a fellow human does not mean that I am obliged to assist you any further. You can return to wherever it is you came from, and I can continue here – but,” he frowned, “The fact that you exist, and apparently others do too, is… intriguing, to me. I have always wondered, but… hm, no, it doesn’t really matter, does it? If all humans are like you, then it doesn’t really matter. They would die soon enough through natural selection. What is that thing on your arm?”

The non-sequitor pushed Hibiki off balance, and he stumbled over his words, “I- wha- the, this? Uh, it’s… a demon summoning terminal.”

“A demon summoning terminal…” Yamato repeated, “That sounds ridiculous. Is that its only function?”

“Yeah?”

“Even more ridiculous,” the child muttered, and he rocked back and forth on his bike once more. He seemed troubled by something, and Hibiki was beginning to get a headache from just – standing here. He wasn’t sure where to go to from here. Leave the kid? Well, that seemed more and more likely since Yamato seemed utterly uninterested in him at this point. Hibiki didn’t know where he could go though. He wouldn’t be welcomed back, since his purpose was to die –being a ‘volunteer’ meant you were the one dragged out of a lottery of human culling. It was a well-known secret.

“I have decided,” Yamato said abruptly, fixing Hibiki with an intent look, “I am taking you.”

“You’re…taking me?” Hibiki repeated dumbly.

“Yes,” Yamato seemed amused again, his eyes narrowing a fraction. “Are you having difficulty comprehending that?”

Yes. Yes he was having difficulty comprehending this. Hibiki felt like his head was spinning. “I- where are you taking me to?”

“Home.” Yamato started turning the bike around. “You will have to walk, so keep up. If we stay in one place too long in the streets, we will be ambushed- ah, wait.”

The kid stopped abruptly, and then, with a heavy sigh, he slipped off the bike. He stood there for a second, and then jerked his head in a sharp nod. “Well then? Come here and take it. You may ride this. Cerberus will take me.”

Slowly, Hibiki took a few steps forwards and took the bike. It was a bike for someone much younger than Hibiki – he was still a teenager, but he was closer to the age of a young adult than a prepubescent. Just how young was Yamato anyway? Was he one of those ‘younger than he looked’ kids, or just mentally mature?

“…how old are you?” he found himself asking.

“…” Yamato stared at him like he was an idiot, “Is that relevant information to have?” he asked, his voice dripping with disdain. “But if I must, I am eleven years old, soon to be twelve years old. Is that satisfactory?”

As Hibiki thought, a prepubescent. Yamato looked a little younger than a soon-to-be twelve year old, though, even though he had a voice of an older teenager already. Seriously, his voice was deeper than Hibiki’s.

“What is yours?” Yamato demanded after a pause.

“…I’m sixteen,” Hibiki replied, “Almost seventeen.”

“I see. You appear older,” Yamato said dismissively. Apparently done with the conversation, he turned away from Hibiki and then deftly clambered onto Cerberus’s back. Straddling the beast, Yamato looked quite at home, his pale fingers curled into his demon’s mane. “Well then? Get on the bike.”

Hibiki awkwardly got onto the bike as ordered. It was uncomfortably small, but he could ride it – it would just be a bit… difficult making sharp turns due to his knees being close to hitting the handlebars. He probably looked like an idiot, but Yamato made no comment on it, looking away once he was certain Hibiki was on the bike, and nudging his heels into Cerberus’s ribs. The beast started forwards as a trot immediately.  

Hibiki followed after him, wobbling a bit on the bike before finding his balance. He just – didn’t know how to take all of this. This kid, Yamato, with Cerberus, just swooping in and snatching him from the jaws of death with all of this weird shit attached and now – he was going ‘home’ with said kid. It was… amazing. Amazingly surreal and insane.

And yet…

For so long, Hibiki had lived in a world where the only certain thing was that eventually you were going to die a horrible, violent death. And now, he met someone who defied everything Hibiki had known about the world – that the cities equalled death, that no one could survive outside of humanity’s stronghold, that humans were weak and doomed to extinction.

And it was a kid who defied that – a weird, rude little kid.  

Well, it was better than dying, following this brat down the rabbit hole…

 

* * *

 

**Tokyo – 2008, June 9 th**

**Human Population: 2**


	2. Chapter 2

The elevator was a bit of a tight squeeze.

 

Hibiki was pressed, somewhat uncomfortably, against the metal wall, with Cerberus’s considerable bulk semi-crushing him against it. Strangely, it wasn’t the demon taking up most of the room in that elevator, but rather, the weird kid and his bike, who seemed to enjoy having a certain amount of personal space around him that Cerberus was eager to accommodate, despite its huge size. As a result, Hibiki suffered an uncomfortable five minutes in a stuffy, groaning elevator for who knows how many floors down.

 

When the doors opened with a solemn growl, Yamato strode out with his bike, and Cerberus was swift on his heels. Hibiki almost slid to the floor, sucking in a few deep breaths before stepping out of the elevator too. It was dark – very dark, but even so, Hibiki could see that the room was large, his steps echoing hollowly around them.

 

“Off again…” he heard Yamato mutter somewhere, and there was the noise of something metallic wrenching and – bright lights bloomed abruptly enough that Hibiki’s eyes stung from the sudden change. He hissed, squeezing them shut, rubbing at his eyes, before cautiously opening them again.

 

A brilliant room of gold met his eyes. Catwalks rose high to the ceiling, and in the centre of the… lobby, were three massive clocks. Their hands were stuck on quarter past ten from what he could see. The massive cogs glimpsed between the cracks in the walls and the catwalks were still, even as a low, overpowering hum rumbling throughout the entire building.

 

“Do you…” Hibiki began, tearing his gaze away from the room with difficulty. Yamato was standing next to what looked like a fusebox, giving him a look of curiosity. “Do you live here?”

 

“Obviously,” was the tart retort.

 

Yamato marched off and left the bike next to the fusebox, Cerberus following in his majestic wake. How a child could be majestic, Hibiki didn’t know, but the way he walked, filled with such confidence and certainty in his own existence and strength, was almost alien to Hibiki. He came from a place where people cringed and cowered in the filth of Naraku-

 

No. Don’t think of that.

 

Hesitantly, he followed after the kid, aware of how their footsteps echoed hollowly throughout the empty lobby. They walked over to where the golden stairs touched the dusty floor, and they travelled up them, twisting around and around until they reached the second floor catwalk. Cerberus barely fitted on the narrow staircase and catwalk, and with how the spindly metal groaned and shuddered, Hibiki feared it was going to collapse at any moment.

 

They took the third door embedded in the wall of the catwalk, and walked down a thankfully wider corridor. Unlike the lobby, which had been musty from obvious disuse, this corridor smelt fresh and clean, the floors highly polished and the lights lining the walls dusted. Hibiki highly doubted the kid did this himself – he couldn’t reach the lights for one, unless he stepped on Cerberus.

 

“Do you live here with just Cerberus?” Hibiki finally spoke up. He had the strangest feeling that they were being watched by something, but Yamato and Cerberus seemed completely relaxed within these quiet walls. They finally stopped before a door, and Yamato appeared to ignore his question entirely.

 

“This can be your room for now. Mine is this one,” he pointed to the door next to it. “There should be clean bedding in the cupboard beside the bed, if you want to take a nap. I need to… do something.”

 

Yamato was giving him a severe look, and Hibiki stared at him in bemusement. A… bed? As in, an actual bed? He cautiously opened the door, peering inside – the interior was lit up already, and inside was a bed, a bedside cupboard, a small lamp on said cupboard, and a wardrobe. It was as basic as basic could be, but to Hibiki – this was sheer _luxury_. He could only stare, wondering if this was even true.

 

“I… thank you.”

 

“Hmph. It’s just a bed,” Yamato muttered, his eyes narrowing in confusion. With that sharp response, the child walked away from Hibiki, and back down the hallway they had just came, Cerberus following. Soon they were gone, and it was just Hibiki standing there alone.

 

He stepped inside the room after a pause, and took a long moment to gently touch the cupboard, and the bed, with a faint sense of wonder, just to make sure it was actually real. Again, he was amazed how something like this could exist in _Ground Zero_ of all places. How could a single human child live comfortably amongst monsters and demons with no sign of going insane? Rude, yes, but he seemed quite lucid.  

 

Hibiki sat down on the bed. There were pillows there already, although they possessed no covers, and a thick duvet was neatly folded at the end of the mattress, again, with no cover. Hibiki just lied down on it anyway, not caring whether it had covers or not. The mattress was firm yet comfortable, and the pillows were soft. Hibiki was suddenly overcome with the inexplicable urge to cry, a soft, relieved laugh leaving him in shuddering gulps.

 

He was on a _bed_. He was _safe_. He was somewhere where those monsters and death could no longer reach him. It was like breaking the surface of a dark lake he’d been drowning in, tasting fresh, clean air at long last. He held that pillow close to his face, inhaled its cleanliness deeply, and found himself drifting into a deep sleep of pure exhaustion.

 

* * *

 

 

The kitchen was empty when Yamato reached it.

 

The surfaces were clean and sterilised, not a hint or speck of filth marring the silver counters. Yamato walked silently between those counters, making a beeline for the large, industrial sized fridge sitting in the corner. The door was heavy, but with some heaving and pulling, Yamato managed to wrench the door open, its interior lighting up immediately. Inside it was practically empty, save for one bottom shelf filled with edible food.

 

Yamato pushed some aside, grabbing a block of mild cheese still wrapped in its packaging and a pre-wrapped sandwich. It even had brand names on them, and once again, Yamato wondered where on earth Alcor found such items in this world, when such brands had been buried beneath the ground for years.

 

He hoped he didn’t transmute them out of something disgusting.

 

He shut the fridge with his shoulder, and turned around with his items in hand – only to nearly walk right into Alcor in the process. He stopped before that occurred, and craned his neck back to scowl upwards at the creature.

 

“Alcor. You are in my way.”

 

“My apologies,” Alcor said, but there was something different about him. If Yamato didn’t know any better, he would say that there was an edge of barely suppressed happiness to his voice, his fingers pressed against his smiling mouth. “I have learned that we have a guest.”

 

Oh.

 

“Yes, we do. He is a _human_ called Hibiki Kuze,” Yamato said coldly, “A human you were ignorant of.”

 

Alcor’s happiness didn’t seem punctured in the slightest, “My apologies for not answering your previous inquiry, Shining One. I honestly did not know whether humans still existed aside from you.”

 

Yamato stared at him, trying to search for any sign of deceit in Alcor’s face, but saw none. Of course. He hated delivering unsure answers, so he would have tried to hold off from giving a ‘I don’t know’ to him. Yamato still stubbornly held onto his anger though, and gave a small, exaggerated sniff as he side stepped him.

 

“In any case, don’t bother our guest. He’s currently resting. The idiot very nearly got himself killed.”

 

“I understand.”

 

Yamato walked away, but there was an uneasy feeling brewing inside of him that he could not explain. It had lingered with him ever since he had picked up Hibiki Kuze. A heavy, poisonous feeling that gnawed at his very guts. He was content being the sole human alive in the world – had accepted it, and yet… with the arrival of this one human, with promise of more hidden away somewhere within the depths of this hellish world…

 

It carried the hint of something foul, and whatever curiosity Yamato had about the existence of other humans had been soundly crushed as a result.

 

* * *

 

 

There were people crammed into almost every inch of space on the metal catwalk – Hibiki could feel himself accidentally tread on toes and fingers, and all he could do was murmur apologies to the flinches and whimpers he caused. Lifeless eyes stared up at him as he passed, and the stink of sweat and shit was so overpowering that he had to take shallow, quick breaths lest his eyes started watering.

 

Underneath the catwalk was a street – obscured by the haze of smog, silhouettes could still be seen shifting below like swarms of rats, the chatter and shouts of people rising in an almighty clamour. It was always deafening here – a never-ending roar of millions of people confined to the foundation of Eden.

 

People called this place Naraku – Hibiki didn’t know what it meant, but apparently it was related to Hell, and, he really could believe that. While up top was paradise and bright and separated from everything horrible and bad to a precious chosen few, the rest of humanity writhed in this pit fated to die, abandoned by everything.

 

The catwalk dropped to a sudden staircase, and people were crammed in here too – one person was even dead, flies buzzing angrily over the person’s face – and Hibiki had to look away and just step over, and he could feel weak fingers grasping at his trouser legs, the lifeless eyes becoming more and more desperate the lower he went down, and it felt like they were ghouls or monsters preparing to drag him right down into Hell-

 

And his foot suddenly slipped and then – suddenly the world was filled with lightning and fire, and there was a roar somewhere and he _was_ being dragged, he realised – there was a pit below his feet, and hands – claws – and the ghouls – flash of fangs and maddened eyes – all of them ripping at his legs, trying to drag him down and screams he could hear a scream echoing around them as he wildly tried to reach out to something someone help help _help me **help**_ -

 

-something smacked him so hard across the face that Hibiki’s heart almost stopped.

 

A dark wall was what he saw first, his panicked, rapid breaths loud in his ears as the stinging in his cheek slowly died down. What? He blinked quickly, and everything came to him in disjointed bits and pieces, his heart feeling like it was trying to lodge right into his throat. He could still feel the claws digging into his legs, the heat, and those awful gleaming eyes…

 

“Is that normal?”

 

The low, flat voice made Hibiki flinch. He looked up, and – looming over him was the kid. In the gloom, there was an eerie gleam to his pale eyes, it was almost looking at a cat, really, an unnatural reflection of light that no human could possibly achieve with normal eyes. Hibiki swallowed thickly, trying to push his heart right down, and tried to speak – all he managed was a strained croak. His throat was raw and his mouth was dry.

 

“You were screaming, so I presumed you were in some form of distress,” the kid continued. Hibiki realised that he was sitting lightly on his stomach, and his hand was slightly raised – he slapped him. It came to Hibiki so suddenly that it stunned him. That brat fucking slapped him while he – what? Was screaming? So, having a nightmare. He- couldn’t believe it.

 

The kid, Yamato, Hibiki remembered belatedly, slid off of him, wriggling off the edge of the bed and landing nimbly on the floor with nary a noise. There was a pause, one where Yamato stared at him intently, still with those eerie eyes.

 

“In any case, it’s noon,” Yamato continued. How he could tell when the world was fucked up, Hibiki didn’t know. There was no sense of time where he came from, people just guessed. “You have been sleeping for almost ten hours. Alcor has made food. He’s interested in you.”

 

Alcor…? Hibiki blinked at this unfamiliar name, and he slowly sat up. He was aware that his body was covered in sweat, making his clothes cling to him uncomfortably – and he was also aware that the duvet, which had been folded neatly at the bottom of the bed, had been half draped over him, its cover on. Who-

 

“You should shower first,” Yamato muttered, his nose wrinkling briefly. Hibiki flushed, suddenly feeling self-conscious. What, did his sweat really smell that bad? “There is a communal shower at the end of this hallway. Shampoo and body wash will be there already, as well as a towel. Cerberus will collect you once you are done.”

 

“Um, okay.” Hibiki honestly couldn’t think of another response.

 

Yamato gave him a long stare, his expression still, before without a word, the child turned away and walked out of the room. Hibiki sat there for a minute, looking about the dark room. Someone had turned the light off as well, and left a glass of water at his bedside. He highly doubted Yamato would have done such a kind thing, so was it this ‘Alcor’ he mentioned. Was he this child’s caretaker?

 

Consumed with curiosity, Hibiki got out of bed. Will he finally get the answers to this confusing mess…?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After ten billion years I finally peered at this fic and remembered it existed, so here's a short little chapter as I try to dig out my plot notes for this. Sorry about the cliffhanger, but I'll be intending for PLOT to be discussed next and a bit of exposition on how the world did a SMTIV, which I wanna refine before I start blarghing it out here.


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